Looks like we made it!

There's a blog title for all the Barry Manilow fans in da house!  Talking of houses...!!!  Yes we are finally the proud owners of a tiny bungalow in Grange-Over-Sands and it does feel good to finally have a roof our heads.  (Think I may have inadvertantly split an infinitive there, sorry!).

Grange-over-Sands

It's a gorgeous little place - 2 beds and an open plan-ish lounge/ diner/ kitchen - hard to describe, but it is lovely.  The neighbours on both sides are delightful and I know we'll be really happy here.  There's no getting away from the fact that it's in need of a little sprucing up, especially the kitchen which went in in 1976 and hasn't been updated since.  The lino is a symphony of orange and browns which perfectly match the bright orange formica work surfaces.  Maybe I should just leave it - I've heard that retro is in and I have a brown and orange Kenwood Chef dating from around the same period which will blend in perfectly.  Watch out for us on the next series of Life on Mars.

We finally got our grubby mitts on the keys on Monday which was an exciting day in many ways as we spent the morning watching the Arnside Bore.  Now I know I may have been somewhat dismissive of the idea of watching a wave come up the estuary, but if you ever get the chance to see one it's certainly worth a look.  The wave itself was really rather small, no higher than a few inches, but the volume of water it bought behind it was breathtaking - it was like we were watching the tide come in on one wave, and you can certainly appreciate how people get very easily stranded.  It was hard to believe that high tide wasn't for another 2 and a half hours - but by that time we were long gone and frolicking in our new abode.

New back garden

It's been an up and down week all the same - all though the ups have been very much higher of late.  Poor old Steve has been battling a dreadful toothache and we'd already had one visit to the emergency dentist in Kendal hospital, but it all kicked off again yesterday morning so we ended up spending the early evening back at the hospital for him to have the marauding molar removed.  Horrible as it was it's done the trick and although he's still somewhat sore at least he's on the mend and it's a great excuse to eat lots of ice cream.

Monty's gradually getting used to the place.  I don't think he was at all impressed when we removed him from his lovely home in Delores with all the wonderful woods for him to roam in, but once we can start letting him out here I'm sure he'll forgive us.  The bungalow is an odd sort of a layout and we're basically living upstairs and the floor creaks and moans a fair bit which is spooking him, but he'll soon get used to it.

Right now we're sat in the bar back at the campsite making full use of the free WiFi before we get unceremoniously booted off on Thursday.  Steve has been busy moving and smashing vast lumps of limestone in an effort to clear enough space in front of the house to park Delores and we're nearly there.  On Friday we're heading south to clean and clear the house ready for our tenant and move all our goodies up here.  The estate agent wanted £300 to 'professionally clean' the house.  £300?!!  I'd lick it clean for that!  I shall go armed with a shed load of Mr Muscle and a pair of my finest Marigolds - I mean, just how clean can a toilet get?  I'm sure it will be wierd going back but it'll be great to finally get all our familiar stuff up here, there's only so long you can live with a floral print sofa.

I'm planning on keeping the blog going for a while yet as there's loads for us to discover up here and I want to make sure we remember all our adventures, I've been amazed when I read back through at just how much we forget about some of the things we've done, must be my age!  It's been a tough old 3 months but we've finally made it (assuming all our worldly possesions don't go awol somewhere up the M6), we're living in a truly beautiful part of the world, I have a fabulous new job and we're all incredibly happy, and I honestly don't think you can ask for more than that now, can you?